The Paramin Cul­tur­al Or­gan­i­sa­tion has an­nounced the can­cel­la­tion of its an­nu­al Parang on D Hills event for 2026, cit­ing ris­ing costs and lim­it­ed fund­ing.

In a state­ment is­sued yes­ter­day, the or­gan­i­sa­tion said that af­ter much de­lib­er­a­tion and care­ful con­sid­er­a­tion, it had de­cid­ed not to host the fes­tive event, which has been held free of charge since 2009.

It said stag­ing the event had be­come in­creas­ing­ly dif­fi­cult over the years, with ris­ing ex­pens­es and lim­it­ed fi­nan­cial sup­port leav­ing it with lit­tle choice but to can­cel this year’s edi­tion.

The or­gan­i­sa­tion said it had con­sid­ered tran­si­tion­ing to a paid event but ul­ti­mate­ly de­cid­ed against the move, as it felt it would not have been able to de­liv­er the spec­tac­u­lar ex­pe­ri­ence pa­trons had grown ac­cus­tomed to with­out com­pro­mis­ing on the event.

How­ev­er, it stressed that the can­cel­la­tion was not good­bye, as it re­mained com­mit­ted to ex­plor­ing al­ter­na­tive ways to stage the event in 2027.

The or­gan­i­sa­tion al­so ex­pressed grat­i­tude to its pa­trons, per­form­ers, spon­sors, ven­dors, vol­un­teers, sup­port­ers and the Paramin com­mu­ni­ty for their con­tin­ued en­cour­age­ment and loy­al­ty over the years.

It reaf­firmed its com­mit­ment to sup­port­ing the parang art form and keep­ing the tra­di­tion alive.

The or­gan­i­sa­tion al­so ex­tend­ed warm Christ­mas wish­es to its sup­port­ers.

Parang on D Hills has be­come a long­stand­ing Christ­mas event. Over the years, the event has been sus­tained by the sup­port of per­form­ers, spon­sors, ven­dors, vol­un­teers and the wider Paramin com­mu­ni­ty, while pro­vid­ing an op­por­tu­ni­ty to cel­e­brate and pre­serve the tra­di­tion­al art form.